I've now read three of Mr Paul Trewhela's articles in which he attempts to bring to the fore the so called "dark side" of Zuma's exile years. The first two I initially thought didn't need to be challenged. However, after his third vitriolic article, "The Thami Zulu murder: a war of words" (see here), this insistence on making an issue out of a non-issue, namely the death of Thami Zulu (real name Muziwakhe Ngwenya), concerns me.
At the risk of being misunderstood, I must hasten to clarify that one is by no means suggesting that a death of a senior comrade is a non issue but rather that this is a closed matter which was investigated 17 years ago by an ad hoc structure of the ANC, the Skweyiya commission, with another report by Motsuenyane. In all their findings, the movement found no wrong doing on the part of all those who headed the applicable security structures at the time. The Motsuenyane enquiry in particular, according to Chapter II Volume IV of the TRC as contained in Polity, "was a public and independent enquiry to which anyone could bring evidence about such abuses, and a significant number of individuals did so. This enquiry is, in fact, recognised in some of the international literature as a truth commission in its own right" it says.
The report goes on to state further that, "the Commission believes that this was an unprecedented step for a liberation movement to take, and that the ANC should be commended for setting a high standard in this regard. It regrets that it did not receive the same level of co-operation from other structures and organisations in the compiling of this report" albeit "much of the detail contained came from the ANC's own enquiries and submissions to the Commission..." The Skweyiya commission of inquiry's report was published in 1992 and importantly, it too absolved Zuma of any blame for the fate which befell Mr Ngwenya.
Despite these findings the articles by Trewhela are riddled with serious allegations against Zuma; ranging from accusing him of an error in judgement, to dereliction of duty, to failing to oversee operations under his command to, at worst, being guilty of human rights violations himself. Under normal circumstances, any writing of this nature would deserve special attention and praise, but it falls short because of its ulterior motives.
It is for this reason that the contents thereof cannot go unchallenged. Trewhela is barking up the wrong tree. The charges he levels against the president of the ANC are vociferous yet a closer look at them reveals that they are baseless and that he has not done his homework properly.
Whilst Trewhela doesn't directly take a swipe at Zuma he insinuates that he is guilty by association. He suggests that as the overall head of Intelligence and commander in chief of iMbokodo, Zuma is ultimately responsible and thus should be held accountable for the torture, ill treatment, barbaric and human rights violations of suspected spies that took place in the holding cells under his watchful eye. He would have us believe that his is the only account which is correct on this matter - to the extent that he is willing to even oppose the account of events from people who were actually part of the security/Intelligence set up of the ANC in exile.